My Top 50 Non-GangStarr DJ Premier-produced Songs of All-Time Part 1 (#50-41)

What up everybody!  I know it's been a while but I'm back at it with this blog thing and I'm going to try to stick with it this time.  I figured I would need to pack a punch for my first post since January (wow that really has been a while, huh?) so I decided to give you guys a list of my Top 50 Non-GangStarr DJ Premier-produced songs of all-time.
Before I get into the list, let me give you a little background on the idea for this list.  Back in April around the 1-year anniversary of Guru's death, Complex online magazine posted their list of the 50 greatest GangStarr songs.  Here's the link for it:

http://www.complex.com/music/2011/04/the-50-greatest-gang-starr-songs/

It's a great list and I would definitely recommend any GangStarr fan check it out if you haven't already.  Though I would personally rate "Moment of Truth" as my top GangStarr song, I still enjoyed reading the list.  In fact, the disagreements are part of what makes doing these "best-of" lists so much fun.  Just about every hardcore fan will have their own list and it is sure to spark discussion.  Rather than do my own list of 50 best GangStarr songs, I decided to do something in the same vein but a little different.  As anyone who knows me is well aware of, I am a huge DJ Premier fan, both from his work with GangStarr and from his work with all kinds of other artists. So since the GangStarr list has already been done (and done well), I decided to compile a list of my favorite DJ Premier-produced Non-GangStarr songs.  I have worked diligently on this list since April, tweaking it many times and I am now ready to present the final product.  I will present the list in reverse order ten at a time over the next week or so since I don't have the resources or internet know-how that Complex did with their list and doing all of them in one blog would be way too much (plus hopefully it will also provide some dramatic effect as well).  I'll give some insight into all of the songs as well as my reasons for choosing them.  I will provide a YouTube link for each song as well.
Also, my only disclaimer is that these are MY personal favorite songs.  If you are a fan, I'm sure you will disagree with some of my picks and that's that the point.  Let me know what you think as all feedback is appreciated.
So without further ado, I present to you songs #50-41 of My Top 50 Non-GangStarr DJ Premier-produced Songs of All-Time:

50) SNOOP DOGG featuring LADY OF RAGE & RBX-"BATMAN AND ROBIN"
Album: Paid Tha Cost To Be Da Bo$$ (2002)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x1rZgZUXd0

"Batman And Robin" was one of two Primo-produced cuts from Snoop's 2002 album Paid Tha Cost To Be Da Boss.  While I admit that it is a somewhat silly song, with Snoop & Rage trading bars as Batman & Robin, I absolutely love this beat.  Premier's flip of the original Batman theme song is just ridiculous, with a vicious bass line to boot.  The occasional horn stabs really do it for me on this one though.  As someone who saw the original Batman & Robin TV series a few times growing up, I never would have thought that a dope-ass hip-hop beat could be made out of the theme song.  Leave it to Primo to pull it off.

49) JERU THE DAMAJA-"REVENGE OF THE PROPHET (PART 5)"
Album: Wrath of the Math (1996)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BMoT5Jv4A0

Though Jeru is probably more well-known for his solid 1994 debut album The Sun Rises In The East, I personally think his 1996 follow-up Wrath Of The Math is just as good, if not better overall.  One of my favorites from Wrath Of The Math, "Revenge Of The Prophet (Part 5)" is a sequel to "You Can't Stop The Prophet," which appears on The Sun Rises In The East.  The sequel begins with the ending piece from part one before dropping into a banging Primo beat with a sick organ chop and slamming drums.  The track finds Jeru's character The Prophet fighting Tricknology, The Porkchop Patrol, Greedy Lou and of course, his old nemisis Ignorance.  This one is a favorite of mine both for the neck-snapping Premier track and for Jeru's wisdom and creativity.  While some may have found Jeru's anti-materialistic stylings a bit preachy or overbearing, you have to at least give him credit for being creative with it.  It's such a shame that Jeru stopped recording with DJ Premier after this album, as the quality of his music hasn't been the same since (though I hear that they have reconnected and are hopefully going to make more music in the future).

48) FREDDIE FOXXX-"LAZY!"
Album: Konexion (2003)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqMquMQMZ14

"Everybody I know and everybody you know/wanna spit a rhyme on a beat by the Primo/but everybody I know and everybody you know/know that's one thing everybody can't do though."  So goes the chorus to "Lazy!" and the words couldn't be more true.  Primo provides a choppy track that even Foxxx admits is "some real awkward shit" with his signature crisp snares and kicks and Bumpy proceeds to drop his usual hardcore rhymes complete with some jabs at unnamed rappers who he feels get lazy over Premier beats (because the beats are so dope, they don't have to write as hard).  The track also provides one of my favorite hardcore rap lines of all time with the jewel: "If you're beefing on my two-way, please be a thug and sign it/  cause it's gay for you to hide/I put your body in the river-NYPD won't find it/then I pray for you to die."  This one is a favorite of mine not just for the chorus, lyrics, and crazy beat but also because it's something different for both Bumpy and Primo.  The beat is more choppy and bouncy than a usual Premier track and although Bumpy talks his usual shit, the choppiness of the beat forces Bumpy to try a bit of a different flow and he nails it to perfection.

47) PITCH BLACK-"IT'S ALL REAL"
Album: Pitch Black Law (2004)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-32LGlI_pr0

I had never heard of Pitch Black until seeing the video for this song back in 2004 and going crazy, partly because it was a new Primo production and partly because BET actually played a video worth watching on Rap City.  Seven years later, Pitch Black has disappeared into the darkness of rap one-hit wonder status with "It's All Real" serving as their lone hit record.  I can see why as their Pitch Black Law album that included this song was terrible with the exception of this and the other Primo-produced track "Got It Locked."  But enough about Pitch Black, this is one of the few songs on this list that makes it basically for the beat alone and what a beat it is.  Complete with piercing sacred-sounding strings and those crispy drums, as well as the same "yep-yep" scratch that he used in Jeru's "Revenge of the Prophet (Part 5)," Primo truly crafted a banger on this one.  The lyrics from the Pitch Black guys are average at best, but mostly forgettable (though the "today's the tomorrow that you should have feared yesterday" shoutout to KRS does get props from me).  How these guys hooked up with Premier and got him to give them a dope-ass track like this, I'll never know but at least he got the beat out there I guess.

46) RAKIM-"WHEN I B ON THA MIC"
Album: The Master (1999)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M34OelgSlKI&ob=av2e

Rakim still gets respect from just about any old-school hip-hop fan (including myself) for being one of the greatest rappers of all-time, but the fact of the matter is that the quality of Ra's work lyrically definitely went a little downhill after his split with Eric B and still hasn't really recovered to this day.  That being said, Rakim has still put out many a solid song since then, one of them being this one.  The Primo-produced "When I B On Tha Mic" was the highlight of Ra's critically-panned 1999 album The Master, and for good reason.  Premier's  slick piano chops and perfectly-placed scratches set the tone for a song that I think is perhaps Rakim's best lyrical work from his solo era.  Nothing too fancy, just talking about emceeing and deejaying, but Ra does it very well and flows perfectly over the beat to boot.

45) BUCKSHOT LEFONQUE-"MUSIC EVOLUTION (DJ PREMIER REMIX)"
Album: Music Evolution (1997)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adQRz1Ixh1g

Buckshot Lefounque was a side-project group created by saxophonist Branford Marsalis with the help of DJ Premier, who produced a large portion of the group's self-titled debut album in 1994.  This remix of the track "Music Evolution" appeared on the 1997 follow-up album of the same name and was Premier's only contribution to the record.  What a contribution it was though, as Premier easily outdoes the original with his jazzy piano, slamming drums, and well-timed vocal samples.  I think the emcee on this track is Uptown, but I'm not completely sure of that.  Regardless, I love the way he lyrically bridges the gap between jazz and hip-hop and how it sounds over Primo's banging track.

44) JERU THE DAMAJA-"ME OR THE PAPES"
Album: Wrath of the Math (1996)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi8qnGMhvKo

The second (and final) song from Jeru's Wrath of the Math album to make this list continues in the anti-materialistic trend that much of that album was on, with Jeru spitting about the difference between real women and gold-diggers who are only after you for your paper.  A good lesson no doubt (one that every man should know) and well-phrased and put together lyrically by Jeru, but while dope, the lyrics on this one take a backseat to the even doper beat from Premier.  Primo once again shows his uncanny knack for finding ridiculously dope piano samples with his fluent chop of the beautiful piano sounds on Ahmad Jamal's "I Love Music" (the same song Pete Rock sampled for Nas' "The World Is Yours").  Add the signature drums and smooth scratches and you've got yet another DJ Premier banger.  I've always been a bit of a sucker for pianos in beats and I absolutely love the pianos on this track, it puts me in a trance every time I hear it, even to this day.

43) SCREWBALL-"F.A.Y.B.A.N."
Album: Y2K The Album (2000)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N-y6ZTBdmI

One of the hardest tracks Premier has in his discography, "F.A.Y.B.A.N." appears on Queens-based group Screwball's aptly-titled 2000 album Y2K The Album though it's a solo song by the best-known (and easily the illest) rapper in the group, Blaq Poet.  This one just screams hardcore from the simple beat with its slick guitar chops and thumping drums to Poet's vicious lyrics to the self-explanatory hook.  I love hardcore shit and this one definitely qualifies as one of my favorites of all-time.  I wouldn't let the kids listen to it just yet though, they'll understand when they're older.

42) M.O.P. featuring KOOL G RAP-"STICK TO YA GUNZ"
Album: Firing Squad (1996)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmM3lTRq0LA

The first song to make this list from what has been a very successful collaborative career between DJ Premier and M.O.P, "Stick To Ya Gunz" features the hardcore Brownsville duo linking up with hip-hop veteran Kool G Rap for an ode to the gun.  This is another one of the harder songs in Primo's catalouge, as he provides a banging beat backed by a sick violin chop and M.O.P. and Kool G Rap spit their usual array of hardcore lyrics.  Although it's not something revolutionary, I always felt that this beat was a little bit different for Premier.  It sounds cleaner to me than a lot of his other works and the drums are definitely more hollow and not as crispy as his usual drums, but I think that's part of the reason that I love this track so much.  That and the fact that it's just a straight-up banger.  One of my favorites to play while I'm working out, this one always gets me amped when I listen.

41) BLAQ POET-"AIN'T NUTTIN' CHANGED"
Album: Tha Blaqprint (2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNesrbQ-Bm0

The run of hardcore Primo-produced joints continues here with this banger from the previously-mentioned former Screwball frontman Blaq Poet's 2009 solo album Tha Blaqprint called "Ain't Nuttin' Changed."  One of my favorite newer works from Premier, this one features Primo stringing together samples from three different songs to make one continuous banging loop, which provides the perfect soundscape for Poet's hardcore stylings.  A favorite of mine not only because it gets me hyped up every time I hear it, but also because it is different for Premier.  It's not the first time he's done it, but Premier is known more for taking one sample and chopping it up to make a beat whereas here he used three different samples but they all sound great together, though the Four Tops guitar sample is probably my favorite part of the beat.

That's all for now.  Check back soon for part 2 where I'll countdown from #40-31 and get into some more great songs.  Until then, peace!